Artificial hands are well-known in the art. Many artificial hands are biased open, they are at rest in the open position. These hands have an artificial look, in that normal human hands rest in a curved, closed position rather than a flat, spread open position. Further, many of the uses of for an artificial hand are for the closed position, such as gripping, lifting or carrying an object.
Artificial hands that are biased closed are also disclosed in the art. However, these devices are typically complicated, expensive, heavy and difficult to repair. Such hands are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,200,679, 4,685,924, 2,561,383, 2,500,614, 2,285,885 and 1,742,269. The present invention is operated without the use of motors, is simple to construct and repair, is robust, and provides the user with the ability to grasp and lift objects such as a glass to drink from or even to catch a ball.
A mechanical hand amusement device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,315,650 that discloses articulated digits biased in the open position. The digits are flexed by a flexible strap that is moved by a hand grip. U.S. Pat. No. 4,315,650 fails to disclose the present invention which provides the user with the ability to grasp and carry objects without the use of a human hand, wherein the prosthetic device has more than one articulated joints.